The present invention relates generally to electronic messaging, and more particularly to policy based dissemination control of electronic messages.
Electronic communication, in its various forms, is becoming an increasingly popular means of communication. The growth of the Internet, as well as other data and voice networks, allows for widespread dissemination of information. It is easy for users around the world to quickly and efficiently share information, including voice, data, multimedia, etc. The simplest form of such communication is point-to-point communication, in which a sender transmits information to a recipient. Also available is point-to-multipoint, in which a sender transmits information to multiple recipients (also called multicast). Such global connectivity, while certainly providing many benefits, also presents certain problems. One such problem is the loss of control of information once a sender inserts information into a data network. For example, using email, a sender may send information to an intended recipient. However, once received by the recipient, that recipient may further disseminate the information to other recipients without the consent of the sender. While this problem is not unique to electronic communication, the ease and speed with which electronic communications can be duplicated and disseminated make the problem more acute in the electronic communication domain. The “forward” function of many email clients makes the further dissemination of electronic messages a simple matter of clicking a single icon on a computer screen. Coupled with the widespread use of electronic address books, and group mailing lists, the “forward” function of an email client makes widespread dissemination of any information sent via an email system a distinct possibility.
The uncontrolled dissemination problem is not unique to electronic mail. Any electronic messaging system is susceptible to the same problem. Consider traditional voicemail for example. When a caller leaves a voicemail message on a recipients voicemail system, the information in the voicemail message is subject to dissemination via the forwarding function of the voicemail system. Like the email systems described above, voicemail systems also have forwarding functionality, as well as the ability to simultaneously forward messages to multiple recipients. Similarly, instant message systems, which are becoming increasingly popular, also have the same information dissemination capabilities. In fact, almost any type of electronic communication suffers from the problem that once information is inserted into the network, the original content provider (i.e., the message sender) loses control of the information, and the information is subject to unwanted dissemination.
There have been prior attempts at controlling such unwanted disseminations. One attempted solution is to add privacy markings to electronic and voice mail messages such that when a recipient views or listens to the message, the recipient is notified that the message sender considers the message private. However, such privacy markings are often overlooked or ignored.
In the email domain, prior attempts have suggested dissemination control by adding privacy attributes to email messages. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,186 suggests a system where upon receipt of an email message with a privacy attribute, the receiving computer system limits further processing of the message based on the privacy attribute. U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,005 suggests a system in which the message sender adds a security parameter in a message header, where the message header includes instructions as to whether forwarding of the message is permitted. Similar attempts in the email domain have required the approval of the original message sender prior to further dissemination. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2003/0233410 suggests that permission from the original author may be required prior to allowing a blind carbon copy (BCC) recipient to further forward a received email message.
While the prior approaches provide some control over email dissemination, they fail to address the broader problem of electronic communications in general. Further, the prior approaches provide privacy on a per email basis, but fail to provide an overall integrated approach to electronic information dissemination control.